Behind the scenes at Graph Paper Press

As you have all likely noticed, Graph Paper Press has undergone a few substantial changes recently, both in presentation, on our support forum and membership systems. We (Yes, I say we. GPP is no longer a one man show! More on this below.) have also committed ourselves to a new subscription based service to better serve our members. The changes also include improvements to our themes and expanding our child theme selection to our include our most popular themes from 2008.

Lets back up a bit
About six months ago, I realized that the site was becoming much larger that I had ever intended it to be. My initial reason for starting Graph Paper Press was to move my WordPress-related activities away from my personal Web site, http://thadallender.com. My personal site is and was largely a portfolio Web site using WordPress as the CMS. The move proved to be a good thing. Graph Paper Press has grown and grown and grown largely because of our free WordPress theme selection. More free themes are planned for the very near future.

About four months ago, it became clear that I needed to make a decision: Either sell Graph Paper Press or bring others on board who shared my passion for WordPress and design to help run the Web site. For example, one of my free themes reached 10,000 downloads. One month later, two more free themes reached over 10,000 downloads. That many theme downloads translates into many, many forum questions, hundreds of emails about customization, phone calls requesting theme services, etc. It has been an eye-opening experience. During this time, I also got married! And, moved from Kansas City to Washington, D.C. It was simply way too much for one person to handle.

So today, I would like everyone to say hello to Chandra Maharzan, my newest collaborator at Graph Paper Press. Chandra is a seasoned, thoughtful designer and is a great addition to Graph Paper Press.

More Child Themes
That’s right, we’re releasing more child themes for Modularity, our popular theme framework. F8 is now available for members as a child theme for Modularity. This is a beta release. Members can download the F8-Child beta theme in their member-only dashboard. Next up is converting F8-Remixed and Gridline Magazine into child themes for Modularity. All remaining themes will be free.

New Support Forum
We are slowly transitioning to a new forum so that our subscribers and members don’t have to re-register for the forum. The new forum will largely be focused around providing support for our members. We plan on importing all posts from the old forum into the new support forum.

New Membership Area
My favorite change to Graph Paper Press is our new membership dashboard. This area allows members to download themes from one central location and manage accounts independently.

Our Philosophy
Our approach to WordPress and design remains unchanged. We believe that your website should be about your content, not our design. This is why we prefer clean, minimalist designs, a theme options page packed with configurable options, design alternatives, and homepage settings. We also value innovation, member relationships and helping extend the publishing possibilities using WordPress. Happy blogging!

34 responses to “Behind the scenes at Graph Paper Press”

  1. bijan75 Avatar

    It is all good news!
    The only suggestion I have is to make the themes international by preparing them for translations, so the theme can be used by people from different nationalities. More info about this can be found here:
    http://www.zyblog.de/2006/01/15/localizing-wordpress-themes/
    If you prepare the themes I am ready to translate the .pot file into Persian. I am sure there are many people who are willing to translate the themes into other languages, probably more mainstream ones.

    1. Thad Avatar

      The upcoming release of Modularity will be internationalized…..which means……all child themes will also be internationalized.

      1. Sesli Chat Avatar

        Thank you for opening this topic.

  2. bijan75 Avatar

    It is all good news!
    The only suggestion I have is to make the themes international by preparing them for translations, so the theme can be used by people from different nationalities. More info about this can be found here:
    http://www.zyblog.de/2006/01/15/localizing-wordpress-themes/
    If you prepare the themes I am ready to translate the .pot file into Persian. I am sure there are many people who are willing to translate the themes into other languages, probably more mainstream ones.

    1. Thad Avatar

      The upcoming release of Modularity will be internationalized…..which means……all child themes will also be internationalized.

  3. Yemoonyah Avatar

    Graph Paper Press rocks. I love your themes. They are perfect for artists like me. And Modularity with it’s child themes is my absolute favorite.
    Keep up the good work!

    And congrats with your marriage 🙂

  4. Yemoonyah Avatar

    Graph Paper Press rocks. I love your themes. They are perfect for artists like me. And Modularity with it’s child themes is my absolute favorite.
    Keep up the good work!

    And congrats with your marriage 🙂

  5. kat Avatar

    As I said on a different post, you totally deserve all the success you’ve reaped. You’re clearly very talented and they were smart to snap you up in D.C.

    When the Visualization demo is fixed, I’m ready to consider a purchase. In the meantime, congrats on getting married and all of the life changes that will surely bring you happiness!

    1. Thad Avatar

      Thanks! We are working on updating Gridline and Visualization. You can expect them to be re-release as child themes in the next month.

  6. kat Avatar

    As I said on a different post, you totally deserve all the success you’ve reaped. You’re clearly very talented and they were smart to snap you up in D.C.

    When the Visualization demo is fixed, I’m ready to consider a purchase. In the meantime, congrats on getting married and all of the life changes that will surely bring you happiness!

    1. Thad Avatar

      Thanks! We are working on updating Gridline and Visualization. You can expect them to be re-release as child themes in the next month.

  7. PerL Avatar

    Hi,
    As said in a mail before, I think your designs are probably the cleanest and best looking I have seen, among a sea of “not-so-good-looking”-themes out there. The whole WordPress theme situation reminds a bit of the days of early desk top publishing, before the professional designers took charge… Your site gave me hope that the excellent publishing system of WordPress actually could be used on professional looking sites.
    However, I have some problems trying to upgrade to the Modularity Multi License. Is the only way to register with Paypal? I sent a mail about this, but have not received an answer yet.
    Best regards,
    Pär Lodin

  8. PerL Avatar

    Hi,
    As said in a mail before, I think your designs are probably the cleanest and best looking I have seen, among a sea of “not-so-good-looking”-themes out there. The whole WordPress theme situation reminds a bit of the days of early desk top publishing, before the professional designers took charge… Your site gave me hope that the excellent publishing system of WordPress actually could be used on professional looking sites.
    However, I have some problems trying to upgrade to the Modularity Multi License. Is the only way to register with Paypal? I sent a mail about this, but have not received an answer yet.
    Best regards,
    Pär Lodin

  9. simon Avatar

    Modularity Lite boasts child themes etc. on its options page; any progress with these?

  10. John conrad Avatar

    one more nice topic in your blog and nice comments too keep it up, If you advise some more related links to topic. I’m very interested in CMS and all its related subjects.

  11. John conrad Avatar

    one more nice topic in your blog and nice comments too keep it up, If you advise some more related links to topic. I’m very interested in CMS and all its related subjects.

  12. Rachel Avatar

    Continuing the theme of heaping praise on you and your design work, I was prodded by a site designer friend to check out Graph Paper Press for great portfolio options for WordPress. I’m just about to take the plunge and revamp my woefully outdated looking site using one of your templates. Thanks! And welcome to D.C.!

  13. Rachel Avatar

    Continuing the theme of heaping praise on you and your design work, I was prodded by a site designer friend to check out Graph Paper Press for great portfolio options for WordPress. I’m just about to take the plunge and revamp my woefully outdated looking site using one of your templates. Thanks! And welcome to D.C.!

  14. casus gps Avatar

    Great I just found this post my technorati news.

  15. casus gps Avatar

    Great I just found this post my technorati news.

  16. telefon dinleme Avatar

    i have just been here first time but seems like i will always be here

  17. telefon dinleme Avatar

    i have just been here first time but seems like i will always be here

  18. telefon dinleme programı Avatar

    Thanks for the cool post and the nice themes…

  19. telefon dinleme programı Avatar

    Thanks for the cool post and the nice themes…

  20. dinleme cihazları Avatar

    Thanks for your theme selections.

  21. dinleme cihazları Avatar

    Thanks for your theme selections.

  22. dinleme cihazı Avatar

    I m agree with you dear”Continuing the theme of heaping praise on you and your design work, I was prodded by a site designer friend to check out Graph Paper Press for great portfolio options for WordPress. I’m just about to take the plunge and revamp my woefully outdated looking site using one of your templates.”

  23. dinleme cihazı Avatar

    I m agree with you dear”Continuing the theme of heaping praise on you and your design work, I was prodded by a site designer friend to check out Graph Paper Press for great portfolio options for WordPress. I’m just about to take the plunge and revamp my woefully outdated looking site using one of your templates.”

  24. dinleme sistemleri Avatar

    Hello can i register as a freebee to this blog?

  25. dinleme sistemleri Avatar

    Hello can i register as a freebee to this blog?

  26. böcek bulucu Avatar

    Sure you can .Click on the member login tab pls.

  27. böcek bulucu Avatar

    Sure you can .Click on the member login tab pls.

  28. Hugh Gold Avatar

    I seriously can’t believe it. I hope Wayne Rooney is not injured for the world cup!

  29. Hugh Gold Avatar

    I seriously can’t believe it. I hope Wayne Rooney is not injured for the world cup!

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